Bandilang Pula
Written by: Anoymous;
Published: Bandilang Pula, Ika-5 ng Pebrero 1971;
Source: Bandilang Pula, Ika-5 ng Pebrero 1971
Markup: Simoun Magsalin.
There is no doubt that it was the forces of the neocolonial state that invaded the University. It was an act dictated by the interests of the ruling classes as represented by Marcos and implemented by the puppet armed forces. It is, however, necessary to identify its minions, to locate these tyrants in the context of the people’s struggle for national liberation in order to properly assess and meet the particular obstacles they pose to the Movement.
In February 1970, the Movement for a Democratic Philippines denounced the appointment of patently American boys into the Marcos cabinet which was a direct result of the January 26 and 30–31 mass democratic actions against the neocolonial state. These American boys were identified as Cesar Virata, Juan Ponce Enrile and Alejandro Melchor, Their appointments or reappointments were viewed as a calculated attempt of Marcos to reassure American imperialism of his regime’s loyalty. Virata was assigned to Finance and promptly recommended the inevitable sell-out to the IMF and the imposition of the floating rate. Enrile moved on to Defense and escalcated the fascist assaults of the Marcos regime against the people by creating the BSDUs, mounting massive anti-dissident operations to terrorize the awakening peasantry and bloating the army budget to the ridiculous amount of ₱1.4 billion. Melchor moved on to the executive secretaryship and promptly installed the military faction deep into the decision-making machinery of the country.
The further americanization of the Marcos regime did not stop there. Vicente Abad Santos was appointed secretary of Justice and promptly assumed the pathetic role of a morally outraged puppet in the face of the Holman fiasco. This dastardly position vis-a-vis American imperialism was later on butressed by the virtual elevation to secretary of Manuel Collantes at the Department of Foreign Affairs,
Three of the above hard-core American boys in the Marcos regime directly plotted and encouraged the military invasion of the UP and other institutions as well as the intensifying hardline on activism: Enrile, Abad Santos and Melchor, They summoned and berated President SP Lopez last February 1 at the Infrastructure Center in Camp Aguilando thereby practically ordering the latter to crack down on the alleged forces of “anarchy” in the University or else the military would step into the picture. This ill-concelled threat to the University was made on the pretext of safeguarding a national highway which was barricaded by UP students in sympathy with the striking jeepney drivers.
The anti-progressive position of these three American boys is evident in their past and continuing relations with American imperialism and local reactionary interests. Melchor, who represents the epitome of the brown American, spent most of his life in the United States and, understandably, cannot even speak the national language without that plastic Eastern accent. His close and actual connections with the JUSMAG is not really all that surprising since he was properly trained at Annapolis to provide technocracy to the puppet armed forces of the Philippines, As executive secretary enjoying a pivotal role in the Marcos regime, he is the one single proof of Marcos’ fidelity to American imperialism. His pro-oil firm stance and hard-line solutions to the current unrest has alarmed even known reactionaries in the Marcos cabinet.
Abad Santos, for all his sartorial pretensions to intellectualism, has always been considered phoney in enlightened UP circles. The degeneration of the College of Law under his iron-clad administration reduces all talk of his possible ascension to the UP presidency to a big joke. Better known during the Romulo days as a Lumen dean, he was next to Sta. Maria on the chopping board of student activism when he resigned from the College of Law on the unbelievable note of civil liberties, He has always been close to the Koumintang-American economic empire and business espionage outfit of the Sycips which is the reason commonly accepted as the cause for his spectacualr climb to the Marcos regime after a frustrated Supreme Court justiceship during the Macapagal era, Incidentally, the Sycip interests, accounting and law firms, handle the accounts of large American Corporations like Caltex and Esso as well as the US Embassy and Clark Air Base. It was Abad Santos who gave the legal imprimatur for the Quezon City Police and the Metrocom to invade the UP campus in a ruling that caught nobody by surprise.
Ponce Enrile is better known as the defender of American monopoly corporations in the Philippines. He is, as a matter of fact, a one-share holder in the Dole Corporation. Under his administration, the Marcos regime escalated its war-mongering against dissenters and intensified its anti-communist bogey. He has become so obssessed with his dream of becoming senator that he has been taking to the barrios ala Magsaysay kissing babies and hamming it up with the housewives lately. His gross belligerence to activism is well-known to thousands of radio-TV audiences, a stance only matched by Dorog Valencia.
The fervent rantings in the Marcos cabinet cannot help but elicit echoes in Congress, of course. True to his hatchet role and checkered career as witchunter and now pro of Russian socialimperialism, Carmelo Barbero moved for the closure of the University in the name of law and order. This was promptly lapped at by a certain Gustilo of the bureaucrat-capitalist family of Negros. The predominant UP alumni in both the House and the Senate, of course, sang choruses for academic freedom Doy Laurel, Tom Jones sideburns and sharkskin coat, threw a misfired molotov at the barricades to the tune of resounding boos. Eva Kalaw lost her poise as she was jeered in her canary yellow midi and pearl jewelry. Ninoy Aquino hit a sensitive spot in the barricades: he promptly came with bags of food. Genius Magsaysay tried to stop a developing siege last Tuesday afternoon.
Yes, Virginia, all of them were there to squeeze publicity for the next elections. Fortunately and to the credit of the people in the barricades, the gifts were looked into the mouth, No liberators and champions were proclaimed, from the comprador-bureaucrat classes.
The mask has cracked.